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comments:

@Anon 8:05, clearly you don't watch Glee. Show choir is a competition category, mainly at the high school level, in which the vocal group not only sings, but uses costumes and does choreography to create a dramatic show. Show choirs may have started in the 1970s with "Up With People", and are now common at high schools across the country. Competitions can attract thousands of viewers.

I didn't know show choir either, and the Wikipedia entry is less than illuminating. It says a show choir is a bunch of people who dress up and sing and dance -- which I think people having doing in various forms for centuries. So it's not clear to me how a show choir differs from other singing-and-dancing outfits.

Speaking of cultural ignorance, can someone explain HAS for "is down with"? I thought that saying someone "is down with" something means they're cool with it, it's OK by them. No?

MOHAIR SUIT was one of the first things I got, and I've had the earworm of Benny and the Jets stuck in my brain ever since. There's a lot to like in this puzzle, even without knowing SHOW CHOIR or LEN Lesser or what Allred's field was. (Oh, yeah. Her.) And no junk fill at all.

I loved the clue for 28a. When a 4-letter word appears with the clue "City on the Irtysh", I'm ready.

"I Got a Woman" (originally titled "I've Got a Woman") is a song co-written and recorded by American R&B/soul musician Ray Charles and released as a single in December 1954 on the Atlantic label as Atlantic 45-1050 b/w "Come Back Baby." Both sides later appeared on his 1957 album Ray Charles (subsequently reissued as Hallelujah I Love Her So).